


Follow You Into the Dark

by imaginary_iby



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, threesome hurt/comfort snugglefest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 03:48:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1181525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_iby/pseuds/imaginary_iby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cath is shot while Steve is away on a mission with the Navy.  Guilty and worried, Danny refuses to leave her side, spending days and nights beside her hospital bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Follow You Into the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> This is one big ball of romance and friendship, a little something for everyone, I think. :)
> 
> Thanks to Chris, who was very kind when I was very sensitive. Thanks also to Kendall, who navigated the murky waters of summaries with me.

Cath goes down three days into Steve’s ‘technically’ non-existent mission.

Danny’s glad that Steve left with more than a letter, this time, but relief quickly turns to fear as he watches blood pool across Cath’s belly. She falls to the ground with a soft _oh,_ one hand to the wound, the other stretched out in front of her, as though reaching for him. 

He breaks cover like an idiot, lungs burning as he races across mud and blood to drop next to her, chest over hers, tucking her head into the curve of his shoulder as the fight rages around them. 

Sticky-wet breath whistles past his ear, her legs kick out, and he soothes her as best he can. Bullets spray the mud around them, and he has no choice but to grab her, push-pull-slide them back. The sounds that she makes are the most achingly pitiful he’s ever heard outside of Grace’s nursery back in Jersey.

“It’s alright,” he says, lips moving against her temple. “It’s alright, it’s alright.”

The tragedy of it is, as he sits outside her hospital room, that they don’t have time for bedside vigils. The case is still raging, Cath’s shooter is on the run, and their work is so important that they can’t sit still for too long.

That doesn’t mean he can ever bring himself to leave, hours in the hospital cafeteria, beside her bed when the nurses will let him. He feels like shit, burdening Chin and Kono with the workload; but every time he tries to leave, he looks at Cath, so small and alone, only her heartbeat monitor for company, and he slumps back into his chair.

He knows she’d kick his ass if she saw him torn up like this, hollow and guilty, almost selfishly so. She needs partnership, yes, but not protection. It’s his job to have her back, not treat her like a child. 

But Steve had laughed before he’d left, told them not to forget about him, instructed Danny not to drive Cath mad and asked Cath not to kill Danny in return. They’d laughed, feigned confidence about his leaving, even though anybody could see that they were both worried sick.

Cath whimpers in her sleep, but Danny’s got her noises learned by now, he knows that’s she’s still out of it. She whimpers again, and he grasps her hand until she quiets, and he falls asleep to the sound of her heartbeat.

The next thing he knows, strong fingers are curling around his shoulders, shifting him. His spine protests, feels like it’s about to snap it hurts so much. 

“Wha,” he slurs, reaching for the gun that isn’t there, other hand crab-walking across the bed to draw Cath behind him. “No, no.”

“Danny.” 

Danny knows those fingers, knows that voice. 

“Danny,” Steve repeats, softly, “it’s okay.”

Danny’s spine pops, his eyes spring open, and he almost slips down the gap between his chair and the bed before Steve grabs him, settles him against the brown leather cushion.

Steve is looking down at him, face bruised with both stubble and a boot print, and Danny hurts so much that he couldn’t protect Cath, couldn’t go with Steve to wherever the Navy had sent him.

“I should go,” Danny says, twisting himself out of his chair, and he only realizes that Cath is awake when she makes a pained noise, a new noise, and grips his hand for dear life. “No, I should go.” He wrenches his hand away, and leaves.

The hospital steps are probably not the most covert place to sit down for breath, because an hour later Steve comes to find him, footfalls heavy and angry.

“What the hell, Danny?” He sits down, almost boxing Danny in against the railing, his long legs stretched out; Danny has his knees up against his belly.

“It was a second, Steve,” Danny begins, guilty and angry both, because he hasn’t been babysitting Cath only to return her to Steve as soon as humanly possible. 

Only, maybe that’s what he just did, turn and run, and what kind of a prick is he that he’s treating Cath like a responsibility, something he was supposed to protect in Steve’s stead. He’s never treated her that way before, so he can only figure that it’s the guilt talking.

“It happened in a second. I only took my eyes off her for a second.”

“Danny,” Steve says, tone immediately soft. “She’s not a kid, Danny. We’re supposed to have her back, just like she’s supposed to have ours. We’re not supposed to bubble-wrap her.”

Danny gives in to the urge to glare, because he and Cath have _talked_ about Steve, re: Neanderthal and Caveman like behavior. Hell, Danny knows for a fact that the last time he himself ended up in hospital, Steve went off the rails with their perp.

“Okay,” Steve concedes. “We’re supposed to not be the arrogant, over-protective assholes that we both know we can be, sometimes.”

Danny snorts, because, yeah. That’s true.

“And besides.” Steve bumps their shoulders together, and Danny relaxes. Fractionally. “Besides, that’s not what I meant. I meant, what the hell, you shouldn’t have left. She wanted you to stay.”

Danny slumps, knees drawing closer to his chest, and damn, he hates that he’s short because he knows that he looks like a kid right now. Manfully he stretches his legs out, as though ready for anything. 

“I wanted to give you two some time together.” That’s a lie, and they both know it, because Danny has actually walked in on them half-naked more than once, and just thrown their clothes at them, _chop chop, we’re going for beers._

They always do. Oh, Steve grumbles, and Cath laughs, but they always get dressed and go wherever he wants to go, and Danny thinks that maybe, maybe, it’s because he has a place with them, no matter what.

Steve isn’t fooled. “Try again.”

Danny feels suddenly furious, because he doesn’t want to talk about this, a beer or three sounds good right about now. “I let her down. And then I saw you, and I didn’t want you to be angry with me, because I let you down.” He grits the words out.

Steve’s face twitches, confusion written all over. “When do you ever care if I’m angry with you?”

If only that were true. Sure, on one level, Danny couldn’t give a fuck; being in Steve’s good books is not something that keeps him up at night. But beneath the bluster, Steve is his partner, a good guy, hell, the best friend Danny’s got, and he’s out of practice at caring about what anybody but his daughter thinks of him.

“Danny,” Steve tries again. “The only way you could ever let me down, is if you didn’t get your ass in gear, and go back to her room with me.”

Danny nods, everything draining out of him, and he’s not used to feeling so limp. 

“You look like shit.” Steve grabs his hand, hauls him up, and his spine all but screams, damn, he’s spent six days too many twisted into uncomfortable hospital chairs. 

“The nurses said you’ve been here the whole time?”

Danny nods, runs his tongue over teeth that feel like they’re covered in moss, and it’s only a matter of time before Steve will be making caveman jokes of his own, if the heavy scruff that Danny feels itching across his face looks as bad as it feels.

The trek back to Cath’s room is long and kind of wobbly, stress and sleep-deprivation taking their toll; but Danny doesn’t fail to notice that Steve is walking with a slight limp. God, what a pair they make. What a trio, really, as they round into Cath’s room, her blankets pulled up to her nose, heavy-lidded eyes peeking out. 

Danny hovers in the doorway, and Steve does the uncharitable thing and shoves him forward.

“Steve,” Cath scolds, voice scratchy with disuse but obviously up to the task of telling Steve off. She reaches out, shaky hands worming out of the covers and pulling Danny forward until he’s perched on the bed by her hip, and damn, the pillow feels comfortable, he’s just going to scooch down. Just for a second.

“You’re an idiot,” Cath croaks, stopping when Steve ever-so-tenderly shifts her across the bed a little, making room to curl up on her other side. “I’m responsible for myself. The fact that I got hurt while Steve was-“ she breaks off to cough, and Danny notices that he may be squeezing her a bit. “- while Steve was away, just means I have bad timing. Not that you failed anybody. Buck up, Williams, I feel too crummy to make you feel better.”

Suitable chastised, Danny nods. “Sorry. For being an ass. Not sorry that you got shot. That was all your fault.” 

It looks like it costs her, but she manages to poke him in the belly. Hard. “Ass.”

“Yep,” Steve chimes in, but he looks like he’s feeling the lure of the pillow, lids heavy, bruised cheek gingerly propped against soft cotton. 

Cath reaches out to stroke the line of his jaw, fingers tangling with Danny’s when he does the same.

“Just gonna…” Steve begins, curling into their touch.

“Yeah,” Cath whispers.

“Sounds good,” Danny carries on. “Just gonna… close my eyes. Five minutes.”

Cath nods, head lolling back to rest on Steve’s shoulder. “Five minutes.”


End file.
